I have a dream

Photoshop Illustration courtesy of Daily Kos

During Friday night's taping of the McLaughlin Group, panelist Lawrence O'Donnell spilled the beans that Karl Rove was the leaker in the Valerie Plame case. If true, it's what every left-wing blogger has been hoping for: a big fish.

Rove's attorney Robert Luskin pleaded Rove's innocence Saturday night, but O'Donnell isn't biting.

The right-wing blogosphere is already hatching out Rove defenses. Here's a couple of my favorites:

1. Rove didn't "knowingly" reveal Plame was a covert C.I.A. agent
or
2. It's yet to be determined if that information was even classified

Bullshit (cough) bullshit.

Here's a trio of quotes (easilly Googlable) for the right-wingers:

CNN.com, September 29, 2003:
[Scott] McClellan said that if anyone at the White House leaked Plame's identity, he should be fired, and pursued to the "fullest extent. No one was authorized to do this. That is simply not the way this White House operates and if someone leaked classified information it is a very serious matter," he said.

George W. Bush, October 6, 2003:
"This is a very serious matter, and our administration takes it seriously. As members of the press corps here know, I have, at times, complained about leaks of security information, whether the leaks be in the legislative branch or in the executive branch. And I take those leaks very seriously [...] and this is a serious charge, by the way. We're talking about a criminal action."

MSNBC host Chris Matthews, talking to Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, August 22, 2003:
"I just got off the phone with Karl Rove, who said your wife was fair game."

Seems pretty cut and dried to me.

It would be hard to believe that Bush knew nothing of the plan if Rove were involved. But it's also too much to hope that a Rove arrest could lead to a domino effect in the administration.